The Chatterer-in-Chief

It may have been a difficult summer in quite a few ways, but as for hummingbirds, it's been amazing! We have at least four and maybe five birds who hang out constantly in our backyard. I have two feeders going, one in Gremlin's Meadow, the other in front of the butterfly garden. I clean and fill them every few days. It's hard to keep up!

A thing you will not know about these little birds unless you hang out with them yourself is what a bunch of chatter-boxes they are. They spend their hours chasing each other and competing for the feeders. And what a racket they make. The air is full of bird sounds, starting very early in the morning and ending around dusk (which is falling earlier now; have you noticed?).

Above is a photo of the loudest of the lot. I think of this one as the chatterer-in-chief. It likes to drink at the feeder and then it goes and sits on a trellis nearby, where it keeps watch for other incoming birds. They are such good company, these little jewels of our yard. In about a month they will leave us and travel very far. I wonder if they will ever dream of our green and shady yard, and remember this as "home."

Here's a song for a bird, and I bet you've heard it before: Lynyrd Skynyrd, with Free Bird.